Valtucci, Federico (2026) Experimental investigation and modeling of earthquake-induced excess pore pressure effects on shallow-founded buildings. [Tesi di dottorato]

Documento PDF PhD_thesis_Valtucci.pdf Visibile a [TBR] Amministratori dell'archivio Download (44MB) | Richiedi una copia

Abstract

This thesis addresses the prediction of settlements in buildings founded on shallow foundations and subjected to earthquake-induced excess pore water pressures. The topic stems from the evidence that, during earthquakes, damage to the built environment is not caused only by inertial action, but also by the loss of stiffness and strength of the foundation soil, which may lead to settlements, rotations, and bearing capacity failure. The research was developed starting from the state of the art, which shows that there is still a lack of simplified yet physically based methods capable of estimating the effective stress state beneath a structure. On this basis, the proposed approach was developed to estimate both the co-seismic and post-seismic components of settlement, starting from the variation in effective stresses and from the distribution of excess pore pressure beneath the foundation, which are the causes of stiffness and strength degradation even before full liquefaction occurs. The thesis made use of both field campaigns carried out after the earthquake in Turkey and small-scale centrifuge experiments at the Schofield Centre in Cambridge; the resulting dataset provided an important independent validation source for the model. Validation showed good predictive performance against the available site and centrifuge data, although the model is still undergoing refinement to incorporate additional mechanisms and improve its applicability. Overall, the thesis proposes a reading and calculation tool that is useful for interpreting the behaviour of shallow foundations on liquefiable soils and for providing a preliminary estimate of settlements in design practice.

Downloads

Actions (login required)

Modifica documento